$1 180 Entry

After 76 hands the VPIP/PR for the villain 5 is 46/0. The big blind is a TAG. On my right are nits, who have folded, and the rest are passive. If table image means anything here, my VPIP is a (card dead) less than 10%. I often fold T9s pre-flop in this spot, but it is a villain dependant decision. The plan is to give up if the big blind shows interest in the pot.

When villain 5 re-raises the flop it is an indication that he something strong, and I am behind. From watching him previously, I do not think he is semi-bluffing a stronger flush draw. But I could be wrong. He could do this with AQ, 2 pair, a set, or maybe KQ. (It just occurred to me that he could have had over-cards or or an over-pair. -edit)

Should I have folded the flop, called, or just shipped it?

With 9 flush cards, 2 more 9s, 3 Jacks (minus the J spades), and (possibly) 3 tens as outs, and 2 to 1 pot odds; is the turn a clear call? This may also pivot on whether or not the spades and tens are actually outs.

Just calling the flop raise was a big mistake. The raise is 500 more to you which is about 25% of your stack, it also leaves you with roughly a pot sized stack on the turn, which then gives you the wrong odds to call on the turn. When faced with this decision on the flop you need to be thinking about the impact your decision will have on future streets, Your only option here was to re raise the flop, I quite like a small re raise, which pot commits you and also looks stronger than your hand really is. A shove on the flop would also be fine, your hand is never dead here and with the payout structure in the 180s it pays to gamble as all the money is at the final table really.

I have gotten used to being deep stacked in cash games as well, where typical SPR's are commonly calculated around 100BBs. Players like this villain get hooked and bled out quickly in cash games.

Pretty certain that I messed up the hand - that's why it is in the forum. He would often take small stabs at pots out of position on the flop, and then give up to resistance. I only saw him re-raise/check-raise three times. Once here, once to put a small stack all-in (he had a hand - but lost,) and the third - which he won - never went to showdown. So it is a small sample size. What is different is that here he has position on me.

The polarity of medium pocket pairs usually means that they are easy to fold if you miss - easy game, right? I got stuck without room to manoeuvre because of my stack size. But the hand had potential.

There was plenty of time before the bubble, slightly more than 60 runners, and many 15bb to 30bb stacks left.

If we are not in the money I would definately fold here, with 20bbs we still have a bit of time before we are in the red zone and its a very nice size to shove as a resteal in good spots.

I too am more accustomed to cash games now. I like the freedom of being able to sit out when I want. When I play at work I really can't play tournaments because people are rude and always get sick when you are close to the bubble lol. That is how I got hooked on cash games.

I think its a pretty easy fold. we probably don't have all nine outs to the flush and if we hit it, it may or may not be good. I would much rather shove AK of spades here than to get it in with 2nd pair and a weak draw. we only have 4 bbs invested on the flop.

I would love to hear why you feel we should stack off here. His bet on the flop is saying " I am not folding " I think if we just raise here he is shoving 100% of the time, and we will have to call once we put that many chips in the pot.

Maybe you are seeing something that I don't see, so please share your thoughts on why this is never a fold.

Raising preflop is fine as there is only one reshove stack. C-betting is good but your sizing is very small is there any reason for that? Was you betting this small in hope of keeping villain in the hand? When he raises our c-bet I think it's quite unlikely that he's raising us with worse than Qx but even so this is a definite shove imo.

Sometimes he villain will show hands like KJ/K10 or random overcards that he's decided to flip out with and we have a ton of equity against most hands that beat us. Also, a set is unlikely, a lot of villains would 3bet nines preflop and if villain had a set of two's I think he would elect to play them slower.

Calling the raise is a mistake, especially if we plan on folding to a turn bet if we miss our draw. We want to see a turn and a river with our hand and when we elect to just call villains raise we are leaving ourselves with less than a pot sized bet on the turn which is just gross and it's bad poker. Ship the flop aaawwwwwwl day.
Second pair, flush draw, back door straight draw and our hand could indeed be ahead anyway.

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